HARRY HOUDINI: Ladies and gentlemen: introducing my original invention, the water torture cell…

That’s Harry Houdini, in 1914, describing the water torture cell, in which he emerges from an upside-down dunk tank imprisonment. A new exhibition at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco explores the life and legacy of the great escape artist. Brother and sister team Molly and Seth Samuel ducked in to see what the show reveals.

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SETH SAMUEL: There’s a Houdini quote printed on the wall as you enter this gallery at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. It says:

MOLLY SAMUEL: “Will wonders never cease?”

S. SAMUEL: They won’t – not in this show, anyway. It doesn’t reveal anything about how Houdini did his tricks.

M. SAMUEL: It does explore why he did them. And what he meant – and actually, still means – to people.

S. SAMUEL: Dara Solomon is a curator at the museum. She meets us up front for a tour.

DARA SOLOMON: Houdini was born in Budapest, in Hungary, and he came over to the United States with his family when he was about four years old. He was born in 1874.

S. SAMUEL: Houdini’s given name was Ehrich Weiss (born Erik Weisz).

M. SAMUEL: The family moved to America when his father, who was a rabbi, was hired by a synagogue in Wisconsin. The job didn’t pan out, and they ended up in New York. Houdini, some of his brothers, and his dad started working in a factory.

S. SAMUEL: The magic part’s coming soon, don’t worry.

M. SAMUEL: Yes, soon! Here’s Dara Solomon.

SOLOMON: He very early, as legend goes, was interested in performing, doing backyard performances and was also interested in locks and unlocking things that people would lock up, and he would surprise them and be able to open the locks.

S. SAMUEL: Was he a lawbreaker? Why did he like locks?

SOLOMON: No, I think like his mother would like lock up pies and he would be able to unlock the boxes they were in.

S. SAMUEL: When he was seven, Ehrich saw a trapeze artist perform at a traveling circus and immediately decided that he was going to be a trapeze artist.

M. SAMUEL: And not too long after, “Ehrich, Prince of the Air!” was a trapeze artist, at the age of nine, for The Jack Hoeffler 5-Cent Circus.

S. SAMUEL: And In 1894, at the age of 20, he joined The Welsh Brothers Circus.

M. SAMUEL: His colleagues included a Japanese balancing act, strongmen, sword-swallowers, contortionists… And it was there that he really perfected one of his most famous acts.

SOLOMON: This is one of the trunks that he would have used in the metamorphosis trick.

S. SAMUEL: The metamorphosis trick – Houdini did this one with his wife, Bess. His hands are tied behind his back. He gets into a big sack, which is tied shut. The sack, with Houdini in it, is put into a trunk, which is then securely locked.

M. SAMUEL: Bess stands on the trunk, and closes a curtain in front of her. She claps three times. On the third clap, the curtain opens to reveal not Bess, but – Houdini! Bess is tied up, inside the sack, which is inside the locked trunk.

S. SAMUEL: When you look again, it’s still just a basic, big old wooden trunk.

SOLOMON: That’s part of the appeal, too, these everyday objects that he turned into spectacles.

S. SAMUEL: How did he do it?

M. SAMUEL: Magicians never reveal their secrets, and this exhibit doesn’t either. The show does showcase other things Houdini escaped from: a milk can, a collection of handcuffs, a straitjacket.

S. SAMUEL: These aren’t necessarily everyday objects to everyone…

M. SAMUEL: …but they’re not inherently magical or rare things either.

S. SAMUEL: We wander over to a silent video, showing one of Houdini’s escapes in front of a huge crowd.

M. SAMUEL: So he’s standing on top of this metal bridge. Policemen are fitting his handcuffs on. We see his white trunks climbing up…

S. SAMUEL: There’s actually people hanging all over the bridge, just to watch it happen. And…

M. SAMUEL and S. SAMUEL: There he goes. Splash!

S. SAMUEL: He just, he just jumped into the water, disappears and like four seconds later, is back out of the water. No handcuffs.

JOE PON: He was iconic because his magic was good, his escapes were death-defying.

PON: I’ve been doing magic since I was a kid and Houdini is one of my big heroes. When you say magic, right away you think of Houdini, that characterization. He’s in the dictionary, Houdini, look him up. I just love Houdini.

S. SAMUEL: He loves Houdini.

M. SAMUEL: And, Pon says, he’s not the only one.

PON: Because everybody wants to be Houdini. From, not just magicians, David Copperfield, Doug Henning, David Blaine, Criss Angel – we all want to be like that. Not just that, but everyone else in the world. Michael Jackson, Madonna… He is iconic to magic and everybody who is a showman or showperson wants to study the art of being Houdini.

S. SAMUEL: Pon loves magic because it creates a different reality. And that was important in Houdini’s day.

PON: During that era, it’s the Depression, he’s the working man, he’s trying to break through the chains.

M. SAMUEL: People craved distraction from their daily problems. The same way they do now. Houdini made their lives more magical.

S. SAMUEL: Back at the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s exhibition, there’s a black and white photograph of a city street, blown up to billboard-size. There’s an enormous crowd, and they’re all looking at Harry Houdini, hanging high above them, upside-down, in a straitjacket.

M. SAMUEL: Where is he? There he is …

S. SAMUEL: He’s at the very, very top of the mural. It’s a humongous mural.

S. SAMUEL: The street is totally filled. It’s looks like Times Square. Curator Dara Solomon says the picture was taken in Providence, Rhode Island.

SOLOMON: It’s unbelievable how many people were there.

S. SAMUEL: It must be the entire population of Rhode Island.

SOLOMON: That’s what we were just saying. It really seems that way. And they’re just all out. Everyone has a hat and a coat, so really, you get this real sense of the period. Thousands of people would come out and watch him because they didn’t have TVs, this was a time when you would go out on the street to see a spectacle.

S. SAMUEL: Solomon says that kind of public spectacle is less common today. Though, we might still need it.

SOLOMON: We’re so used to being entertained in our homes and in the theater, but seeing this on the street, it’s way more powerful, I think.

M. SAMUEL: The big crowd photo reveals something else about Houdini: He wasn’t just an escape artist. He was also a master of self-promotion. Any time he came to a new city, he’d perform his stunts in front of the newspaper building, guaranteeing himself some free advertising.

S. SAMUEL: He did just that in San Francisco in 1923.

SOLOMON: He did the straitjacket escape in front of the Hearst Building on Market and 3rd Street, just right around the corner.

M. SAMUEL: The straitjacket escape: Houdini is strapped into a regulation straitjacket. His arms are firmly crossed across his chest, and the straitjacket’s long sleeves are buckled shut at the ends and tied tightly behind his back. He’s hoisted up by his ankles and hung upside-down from a building. He squares his shoulders…

S. SAMUEL: …And then the wriggling starts.

M. SAMUEL: He’s got to get one of his arms above his head.

S. SAMUEL: He accomplishes that – somehow – and now his arms are free – somehow – but his hands aren’t. They’re still buckled in their sleeves…

M. SAMUEL: So he unbuckles them. With his teeth.

S. SAMUEL: His hands now free, Houdini takes off the straitjacket just as easily as a raincoat…

Houdini died in 1926 at the age of 52.

M. SAMUEL: He spent the last years of his life debunking people who claimed to have psychic powers.

S. SAMUEL: But that didn’t mean he lost his own air of mystery.

PON: He picked the best day to die on, too.

M. SAMUEL: Halloween.

S. SAMUEL: There were more than 2,000 mourners at his funeral.

M. SAMUEL: He escaped a life of obscurity and poverty, and he allowed others a chance to escape the everyday. In San Francisco, I’m Molly Samuel.

S. SAMUEL: And I’m Seth Samuel, for Crosscurrents.

Catch the Houdini exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum through January 16, 2012. And click here to listen to Joe Pon perform a magic trick for Seth Samuel.